Since I ranted about internet marketing training yesterday, I thought I’d post a video I just did for the team. This one’s a really quick look at Google Analytics, and how to do a fast analysis of lost organic search traffic: Quickly find and diagnose lost keyword-specific traffic in Google Analytics. I never build these… Read More

Update! We’ve got a new and improved version of the Cheat Sheet for 2015! Google Analytics is Hard Google Analytics is tricky. There are cookies, utm_codes, and lots of counterintuitive definitions. As Kanye West would say, “It’s enough to drive a sane man biz-erk.” Can’t Someone Put This All in One Place? When I was… Read More

It’s no secret I’m a Google Analytics fan. But Google Analytics version 5, coming soon to a browser near you, addresses some major shortcomings. Here are ten features you’ll want to check out, the moment they’re available: 1: Multi-touch attribution Important note: This is a separate beta and is rolling out on its own. So… Read More

Yep, today only, Ian’s Tame Google Analytics ebook is on AppSumo for just $10. That’s a 41% savings! What You Get Buy this e-book and learn how to: Set up Google Analytics Define business goals Set up tracking for those goals in Google Analytics Calculate the $ value of one visitor to your web site… Read More

First, a brief interlude: AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHH OK. I’m good now. Primal scream complete. The documentation for Google App Scripts is… less than perfect. So I have to start by thanking Tom Critchlow of Distilled. He sent me the initial script that made Google Spreadsheets play well with the LinkScape API. Otherwise, I’d be in a small,… Read More

I’ve been building some custom reports for Portent in Google Spreadsheets. They do fun stuff like grab Google Analytics data, insert data from other APIs and such. One thing that nearly drove me batty, though, was figuring out how to automatically add a new row below the last row with data. Turns out, Google App… Read More

I cannot lie – The prospect of taking the Google Analytics Certification Test intimidated me. I know my way around Google Analytics well. I counsel clients. But Google has this way of concocting test questions that are just odd enough to make you question your answers. Would there be lots of questions on the code… Read More

I once got fired for improving sales 300%. I showed a client a report. It was awesome and I was dang proud of the results. The report read like this: Sales from organic search last year were $50,000. Sales from organic search this year were $150,000. Sales from PPC last year were $60,000, against a… Read More

Kevin Hillstrom is my analytical idol. So, when I bought a copy of his e-book, Twitter Hashtag Analysis a few weeks back, I was mostly looking for hashtag analysis techniques. But I got a huge bonus: This great e-book is a blueprint for Twitter community building. Hillstrom based his e-book on analysis of activity in… Read More

I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful… Read More

I lie at the beginning of this video. I say that there are some things I love about Google Analytics’ new ‘in-page analytics’ feature. Truth is, I hate it. You know I’m a fan of all things Google Analytics, but man, this one stinks up the joint like a rotting pig carcass. Watch the video… Read More

Soooo, a few readers asked me why I don’t use PageRank as a statistic. I thought about writing a long, angry, ranty post about Toolbar PageRank, bank bailouts and the moron on NPR today who said the USA has reduced its carbon emissions since 2000, etc. etc. but stopped myself. Instead, I’ve got a nice… Read More

What’s a good bounce rate for my web site? I get that kind of question a lot. What’s a ‘good’ bounce rate? A ‘good’ time on site? The answer, I’m afraid, is: Better than your current bounce rate. Better than your current time on site. In web analytics, it’s best to focus on your own… Read More